Just arrived in our warehouse and ready to ship:

King: The Special Edition
By Ho Che Anderson

312-page color/b&w 7.5" x 11.25" hardcover • $34.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-310-1
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(NOTE: For academic/volume discounts on this title, please call toll-free at 1-800-657-1100 or 206-524-1967 outside the U.S.)

Ho Che Anderson’s biography of America’s great civil rights advocate Martin Luther King is both a monumental recreation of his tumultuous public life (and death) and an intimate portrait of the man as politician, friend, lover, husband, and father.

With the triumphant ascendancy of Barack Obama to the Presidency of the United States, Martin Luther King’s advocacy for racial equality and the dignity of all men stands as one of the greatest and most successful achievements toward social justice in the 20th century. Originally published in three volumes (1993-2002), this Special Edition of King includes the original 240 page graphic novel as well many unique and original additions, including an essay by the author on the making of the book, preliminary sketches, pages of the typescript, visual breakdowns, “deleted scenes,” and a prelude about race relations in contemporary America entitled Black Dogs.

Anderson’s biography traces King’s life from his childhood in Atlanta and his education at Booker T. Washington High School, and his centrality to the civil rights movement when, in 1955, he organized the Montgomery Bus Boycott; his founding of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957; his Nobel Prize in 1964; the 1966 March on Washington and his “I Have a Dream” speech; and the tragic moment on April 4, 1968 when he was shot dead on the balcony of the Lorraine Hotel in Memphis, Tennessee. King brings the man, and a singular moment in American history, vividly to life.

Download an EXCLUSIVE 18-page PDF excerpt (7 MB) covering events from 1960-61.

Just arrived in our warehouse and ready to ship:

Hank Ketcham's Complete Dennis the Menace 1959-1962 Box Set
By Hank Ketcham

two 672-page black & white 5.5" x 6.25" hardcovers in a custom slipcase • $39.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-312-5
Add to Cart • More Info & Previews

slipcase also available separately, exclusively from Fantagraphics • $4.99
Add to Cart • More Info & Previews

A swell custom-designed case containing the fifth and sixth volumes of Hank Ketcham's Complete Dennis the Menace with strips from the years 1959 through 1962. (Sorry, case is not peanut butter or root beer resistant.)

(Click the following links for more details on the 1959-1960 volume and the 1961-1962 volume, including preview excerpts.)

Just arrived in our warehouse and ready to ship:

Chocolate Cheeks
By Steven Weissman

112-page color/b&w 7.5" x 7.5" softcover • $16.99
ISBN: 978-1-56097-927-2
Add to Cart • More Info & Previews

Hilarious, frightening, mysterious, adorable and utterly bleak, Chocolate Cheeks has arrived to disgust and delight comic-book readers of all ages. “Sweet” Chubby Cheeks and the Pullapart Boy (a 21st Century Frankenstein’s monster for kids) are driving each other crazy. Forced together by their dating parents, these two bitter enemies have alienated — or otherwise disposed of — most of their social circle, leaving them with plenty of quality time for each other. They go camping, start a business, form a band, join a team, try to make some new friends (including icky new characters Crustache and Lumpy Noodle) and engage in a "holy war." Things go from worse to worst, though, when the two boys find a cat — or is it a bird? — one hot summer day in the harrowing 51-page story "Blue Jay" (as previously serialized at Fantagraphics.com).

Steven Weissman, modern master of light tragedy, is at his most horrible with Chocolate Cheeks. Juxtaposing gag-driven, newspaper-fashioned strips that are just gross enough to delight younger readers and sophisticated enough to be appreciated by grown-ups alongside the symbolically rich extended narrative of "Blue Jay," this is the greatest "Yikes" book yet.

Download an EXCLUSIVE 10-page PDF excerpt (5.1 MB).

Looks like these posts are pretty much daily, huh?

• Three "lost" prints from Paul Hornschemeier's vaults have been found and are now for sale on his blog

• Holy smokes, it's a multi-page Amazing Facts and Beyond with Leon Beyond epic by Kevin Huizenga, Ted May and Dan Zettwoch, from the pages of the Riverfront Times (with "DVD extras" on Zettwoch's blog)! Will someone in St. Louis PLEASE send us some copies of this?

• Speaking of Huizenga, holy moly, he just opened up a memory that's been dormant in my head for around 30 years with this bit of Jan Lööf fan art (click for full version) — what a great book that was

• Several black & white pieces from the early 1990s by Richard Sala

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions starts with a rave:

• Review: "This is a fascinating book on a lot of levels. For one, it's distinguished by Adam Grano's design work to a degree I think noteworthy: on many levels, Newave! represents better than any book I've seen the clash of comics publishing impulses now and then. ... It says something about Grano's increasingly compelling body of work with Fantagraphics that he provides the work with much of the energy that helps the reader through nearly 900 pages. It's Michael Dowers that makes that trip worthwhile. By avoiding a summary statement and roping in so many cartoonists, presenting 700 pages of their work in doing so..., Dowers lets the reader come to the material rather than shoving it into their face. His confidence is justified: a lot of these comics are fascinating-looking, and the sheer handsomeness of many of the pages, this wall of better-than-expected craft, will probably be the biggest shock to those that kind of dismissed this kind of work whenever one encountered it along the way." – Tom Spurgeon, The Comics Reporter

• Review: "...[Like a Dog] makes for a compelling scrapbook collection — and a beautifully-bound one at that. ... There’s an inspiring breadth of themes and styles on display here, although ultimately they all point to an artist in the depths of an existential crisis." – Will Fitzpatrick, Bookmunch

• Interview: Bookmunch's Will Fitzpatrick, whose review of Zak Sally's Like a Dog is linked above, has a good long email interview with Zak: "I actually enjoy reading comics so much that it’s slightly embarrassing. The stylistic diversity you mention was, again, not that conscious on my part: it was, again, just having this thing or idea and having to find a way to come at it that made sense, to me; and strangely enough, that often meant I had to experiment with what I thought comics were or weren’t to get there. I was just searching for a way to make comics."

• Contributor notes: Mini comix artist Ed Emmer talks about being included in Newave! The Underground Mini Comix of the 1980s

• Links: Another exhaustive Love and Rockets link roundup from Love & Maggie

District 9 is the best socially conscious sci-fi story I've experienced since Ender's Game. I don't know if it was animatronics or computer-graphics or a combination of the two, but Christopher Johnson has my vote for actor of the year. Look at those eyes -- they will melt your cold, cold heart. (Sharlto Copley as Wikus is a close second for actor of the year.) To avoid potential spoilers I won't go into too much detail here just PLEASE SEE THIS MOVIE.

And it doesn't hurt that the graphic design within the movie is gorgeous as well. Here's some of the signage used in the film:

I'm a bit late with this, it somehow escaped me until last night, but the fine folks at Giant Robot need your help. Peggy Burns at D&Q already made a better case than I could as to why you might want to do this, so I'll simply direct you to her if you need reasons to help. I wholeheartedly concur with everything she wrote. 

Our contract with the Peanuts licensor stipulates that we can't pre-sell The Complete Peanuts books before they are relased, but we can still bring you these previews!

The Complete Peanuts 1975-1976 (Vol. 13)
By Charles M. Schulz

344-page black & white 8.5" x 7" hardcover • $28.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-345-3

Ships in: March 2010 (subject to change)

Good grief, Charlie Brown, we're halfway there! That’s right! With this volume, The Complete Peanuts reaches the halfway point of Charles M. Schulz’s astounding half-century run on the greatest comic strip of all time.

These years are especially fecund in terms of new canine characters, as Snoopy is joined by his wandering brother Spike (from Needles), his beloved sister Belle (from Kansas City), and... did you know he had a nephew? In other beagle news, Snoopy breaks his foot and spends six weeks in a cast, deals with his friend Woodstock’s case of the “the vapors,” and gets involved in a heated love triangle with Linus over the girl “Truffles.”

The Complete Peanuts 1975-1976 features several other long stories, including a rare “double track” sequence with two parallel narratives: Peppermint Patty and Snoopy travel to participate in the Powderpuff Derby, while Charlie Brown finally gets to meet his idol Joe Shlabotnik. And Peppermint Patty switches to a private school, but commits the mistake of allowing Snoopy to pick it for her; only after graduation does she realize something’s not quite right!

Plus: A burglary at Peppermint Patty’s house is exacerbated by waterbed problems... Marcie acquires an unwanted suitor... Charlie Brown and Peppermint Patty become desk partners... The talking school building collapses... Lots of tennis jokes... and gags starring Schroeder, Lucy, Franklin, Rerun, Sally, and that vicious cat next door. It’s another two years of Peanuts at its finest! Featuring an introduction by comedian Robert Smigel (Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, Saturday Night Live).

"The Complete Peanuts has framed Charles Schulz’s enduring masterpiece about as well any lifelong fan could’ve hoped." – "The Best Comics of the '00s: The Archives", The A.V. Club

Download an EXCLUSIVE 14-page PDF excerpt (1 MB) containing all the strips from January, 1975!

Slideshow Preview (view in new window):

PEANUTS ® & © United Feature Syndicate. All rights reserved.

Amid all the well-deserved praise directed at R. Crumb's Book of Genesis, I was reminded of another often-overlooked Crumb masterpiece. As Fantagraphics newly minted 4th printing of Kafka reaches bookstore shelves, it seems like a good moment to reflect on the amazing achievement of Crumb and author David Zane Mairowitz.

Entering college I was assigned The Trial for freshman lit. I just wasn't ready for it. I wasn't a total dunce, but there were so many alluring diversions (i. e. booze and babes.) Thus began, and ended, my brief exposure to the works of Franz Kafka.

Only decades later did I deign to revisit the legacy of this literary genius. And it took a Crumb comic book to get me there. Crumb's renderings are at once precise and passionate. The narrative seamlessly weaves Kafka's biography into his self-reflective stories. A delightfully entertaining treatment of Kafka's daunting discourse. Now I can use the cliché "Kafkaesque" at cocktail parties and have some clue.

If you don't already own a copy of this essential book, be sure to pick one up next time you visit Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery. (Might I suggest this Saturday for the Steven Weissman book signing, or the following Saturday at the Gahan Wilson reception.) If you can't join us here, do yourself a huge favor and order a copy now. Your life will be fuller for it.

(...And this didn't get posted on time either. Yeesh!)

I'm still trying to figure out how to handle frequent art bloggers like Renee French and Debbie Drechsler (below). Pick one post to highlight each week? Any suggestions or preferences?

Also, some credit: I think I was inspired subconsciously to start these "Things to see" posts by Robot 6's Comics Cavalcade posts.

• Twelve original collages by Robert Pollard for the Guided by Voices release Suitcase 3, for sale on eBay

• Earth tongues by Debbie Drechsler

• Two films and an animated drawing (not shown here so as not to spoil it) by Lilli Carré

• Dash Shaw's Britney Spears

• At What Things Do, part 4 of "This Already Happened" by Steven Weissman

• Heermann's Gull by T. Edward Bak